Couldn’t Yale take the lead in opting out of rankings?

In response to this question, Jeffrey Brenzel, the admissions director at Yale, explained that there has been a movement to boycott the reputation survey portion of the U.S. News and World Report rankings, and many schools, including Yale, refuse to fill out this portion of the survey. Schools can’t back out of the rankings totally, he said. “You will appear in the rankings whether you supply the information or not. Would Yale be in the position to back out of the rankings? Think broadly about the feasibility of this. The greatest incentive would be a viable alternative to the U.S. News rankings, and colleges should collaborate on this alternative.”

The question is, what kind of entity is capable of gathering data and providing a tool for comparison of colleges and universities. The need for families to have information is critical, and all three panelists agree on this point.